A dozen former and current employees of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) have turned whistleblower, accusing the organization of failing to protect employees against alleged sexual harassment. The information was published by the pro-abortion blog RewireNews, which gives detailed descriptions of repeated accusations of sexual harassment charging NAF management with a slow response. NAF calls itself a defender of women’s rights, but it appears that in this case, they may be protecting an aggressor.

The organization prides itself as a professional membership organization dedicated “exclusively to abortion care,” which trains and publishes “guidelines” for abortionists. NAF members, which include Planned Parenthood facilities, are repeatedly quoted by the media as experts, despite the fact that NAF members and NAF-accredited abortion facilities are routinely being exposed as far from stellar.

Online, NAF claims they have a “longstanding policy prohibiting sexual and other illegal harassment, and all employees are expected to abide by this policy.”

But reviews left anonymously by unverified “employees” on the website, Glassdoor, say otherwise and paint a picture of a systemic environment of sexual harassment, racism, and lack of respect from management toward rank and file staffers at NAF.

A review left in April of 2018, claimed, “Workplace sexual harassment and racism both go unchecked. Both of these have been perpetrated by people in positions of power at NAF.” The same reviewer alleges that NAF’s only focus is on “safe and legal abortions for white women.”

Another reviewer claimed the morale at NAF was “poor” and that the work environment was a “lawsuit waiting to happen.” The reviewer also suggests that NAF “needs a union” — something abortion industry partner Planned Parenthood is reportedly fighting against.

NAF GlassDoor review March 2018 form union

A review from December 2017 claimed management doesn’t care about the rank in file and also claims NAF allows racism and sexual harassment. It states in part:

Despite being told that we don’t have it in the budget to raise our salaries, somehow NAF was able to build a multi-million dollar office space and fill it with unnecessary conveniences like fancy coffeemakers. Meanwhile, our CEO takes lavish vacations on her yacht while the rest of us work two jobs just to pay rent and bills.

In terms of work-place culture, some employees at NAF are blatantly disrespectful and downright abusive. NAF claims to be a feminist organization that wants to fight gender oppression, yet NAF continues to defend and protect sexual harassers and racists who work here. Despite multitudes of complaints to HR, these people still work at NAF and some even continue to take on more powerful positions….

The review goes on to advise NAF management, “Practice what you preach! Don’t tell your employees to believe your patients, when you don’t even believe your employees. If you’re protecting verbally abusive, racists, and sexual harassers at a “feminist organization”…”

The sentiment was backed up by a June 2018 RewireNews article which cited claims by several NAF staffers that they were frustrated with the lack of response from NAF over repeated sexual harassment allegations against the organization’s security head, Mark Mellor.

Mellor, according to his affidavit in the lawsuit surrounding NAF and the Center for Medical Progress, joined NAF in 2013, as “Security Consultant,” and directed the “security program at the National Abortion Federation.” Mellor provided “specialized security services” at many NAF events as well as “24/7 emergency assistance to NAF members.” Mellor indicated his focus was to “ensure a safe, secure and intimidation-free environment” for annual NAF members attending meetings — the same meetings caught in undercover footage by CMP showing NAF members and Planned Parenthood staffers discussing the abhorrent practice of selling of aborted baby body parts, among other topics.

Reportedly, “intimidation-free” didn’t quite apply to NAF staffers.

Former NAF staffer Katherine O’Connell told Rewire that Mellor would “leer at hotline staff and other staff members—many of them young women recently out of college—as they would walk by his office…”

What made O’Connell most uncomfortable, she said, were the unwanted glances and touches she received from Mellor on a regular basis. She said he would routinely look her up and down, and occasionally run his hands down her back or place them on her waist.

After O’Connell allegedly went to NAF’s general counsel about her concerns, she said, “I felt like after that—after she told me that I should come to her office and report it—I felt like I was in her office every week noting something that had happened, where he had put his hands on my waist or made other comments to me.” Rewire notes that though told “the matter was being handled internally,” nothing “concrete” was ever done, to the employee’s knowledge.

The NAF worker claimed the “unaddressed issues with Mellor’s behavior” contributed to her leaving NAF in 2014. In her exit letter to management, the NAF worker allegedly wrote, “This is not an issue I ever thought I would face at a women’s organization.”

Another NAF staffer claimed Mellor would openly display disrespectful images of women on his computer screen and when a male NAF co-worker suggested Mellor change the image from the screen, NAF staffers witnessed the “two men laughing about the situation.”

“It was changed, but it was seen as this giant joke,” a staffer told RewireNews, while describing the environment at NAF as “a hostile work environment.”

Despite the fact that some staffers felt pressure not to speak out publicly — because, as one staffer admitted, it “hurts the movement” — several others did. They described Mellor’s behavior as “somewhat creepy,” “extremely inappropriate,” “extremely unprofessional,” and “deeply inappropriate.”

NAF staffer Kathleen Heckert blasted NAF’s handling of the repeated harassment she claims to have witnessed, calling it “a very uncomfortable environment” where “multiple people feel… harassed,” giving them a “very uncomfortable, inappropriate, and kind of frustrating feeling.”

RewireNews reported that another staffer bemoaned the way that “management at NAF has willfully ignored some of the charges that have been brought to their attention.”

After virtually dismissing serious allegations of the decades-long cover-up of child sexual abuse by Planned Parenthood, it is more than a little surprising for pro-abortion RewireNews to go public about these allegations of sexual harassment at NAF. Unsurprisingly, NAF itself has been silent after Live Action’s Aiding Abusers report and docuseries was published (while Rewire unprofessionally came out against it) even though the report documents serious allegations of a failure of Planned Parenthood to follow mandatory reporting laws. This information was gleaned from court cases, civil lawsuits, health report documents, former staffers, and undercover investigations.

It’s more than a little hypocritical for Rewire and its friends in the abortion industry to dismiss former Planned Parenthood staffers speaking about what they witnessed inside Planned Parenthood.

NAF members have also had their share of scandals and pro-lifers have repeatedly documented the careless way some NAF members treated abortion patients, including sexual abuse. Live Action News previously published not-so-flattering reviews by alleged patients of abortionist Warren Hern, one of the founding members of NAF, now serving on its Board of Directors.

One reviewer claimed Hern “speaks aggressively and it made me feel uncomfortable and slightly scared.”

Warren Hern NAF member (Image: edited screen from NAF website)

Abortionist Curtis Boyd brags online that he helped establish “the National Abortion Federation and is a founding member of the Federation’s Board of Directors.” However, reviews left on Google (previously reported by Live Action News) indicate a lack of trust by his patients.

Another example of NAF’s lax standards can be seen in the case of Kermit Gosnell. According to the Grand Jury Report, Gosnell was allowed to work at a NAF clinic in Delaware. Though NAF’s President and CEO Vicki Saporta, who recently announced her plans to retire in June 2019, claims NAF denied Gosnell’s House of Horrors abortion facility membership after it was observed that “no one was monitoring or taking vital signs of patients who were sedated during procedures,” among other serious violations, prosecutors noted that NAF failed to report the violations to authorities.

In a follow-up to its article, RewireNews claims NAF sent an e-mail stating they have suspended Mellor. NAF then published a statement to their website, which reads in part:

NAF is committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment in which all individuals are treated with dignity and respect…. We take any claim of harassment very seriously. We have looked into all complaints of sexual harassment that have been brought to HR or to the General Counsel and have taken appropriate steps to address any and all violations of NAF’s policy. We are confident that we have dealt appropriately, and consistently with the law and our policies, in handling personnel matters….

While the media is quick to quote NAF as the authority on “anti-abortion violence,” they have remained silent about RewireNews’ report. Even more troubling are the words of a former NAF staffer currently working in the reproductive justice field: “NAF is not the only national reproductive rights organization with workplace issues.”

This article is reprinted with permission. The original appeared here at Live Action News.

A newly released undercover recording captures a late-term abortion facility staffer telling a “healthy woman posing as 25 weeks pregnant” that they will “euthanize the fetus.” The disturbing recording was released by Abortion Free New Mexico and Priests for Life, and was published by the New Mexico group, Pro-life Witness. The undercover phone call was placed to Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO), an Albuquerque, New Mexico, late-term abortion facility operated by infamous abortionist Curtis Boyd.

What appears to be is missing from this disturbing conversation are questions that one would expect an abortion facility to ask, such as the caller’s reasons for seeking an abortion. But in listening to the exchange below, there seems to be no interest in finding out what “health reason” would compel a pregnant woman to seek an abortion so late in her pregnancy:

The basic information sought by facilities like Southwestern Women’s Options is how far along the woman thinks she is and whether or not she can pay. Contrary to what the public is led to believe, it is clear from this video — and others — that late-term abortions are not being performed for reasons of health alone. In several states, including New Mexico, taxpayers are funding late-term abortions done for any reason the woman desires.

It should come as no surprise, then, that abortionists with the abortion industry’s leader, Planned Parenthood, believeall abortions are “medically necessary” and should be funded by taxpayers.

In the video above, one of the first things the facility tells the caller is that if she is able to get to their location quickly (before another week goes by and prices increase further), an abortion at 25 weeks will cost her $8,500. If the abortion industry really wanted to help poor women to have “abortion access,” and “free abortions,” then why are they charging so much? Because abortions, whether paid for by taxpayers or by private individuals, have never been “free.” Despite what the abortion industry might claim, these procedures are (as you can see) quite lucrative.

In 2015, a woman who sought a late-term abortion from Colorado abortionist Warren Hern claims she paid $25,000 to end the life of her baby at 36 weeks. More on that case later.

In detailing the late-term abortion process, the facility staffer tells the caller that the late-term, 25 week abortion is a “three to four day process” of “labor and delivery” which will produce a “stillborn” baby.

On the first day, the doctor, referred to as “she,” will “use a medication.” To do what to the baby, exactly? To “euthanize the fetus” and “stop the fetal heart on that first day,” according to the staffer.

One would expect to hear a term like “euthanize” when taking an animal into a veterinarian’s office. But this callous terminology is fairly common among abortion providers. In the previously mentioned case of a woman seeking an abortion at 36 weeks, costing $25,000, abortionist Warren Hern’s Colorado facility told the woman they would “euthanize” her baby:

“The whole first day was counseling and testing to make sure it was safe to do the procedure. They want to make sure you completely understand what is going to happen and that no one is pressuring you into the decision. At the end of the day, I signed all the paperwork, and the doctor injected the baby with a drug that, over a few hours, slowed her heart to still. It was a very, very difficult day. Euthanizing the baby is, obviously, a very hard thing to do. After the injection, he asked how I was feeling, and I just said, “I feel so sad. I’m going to miss her.”

You might be asking, “What is done to ‘euthanize’ a preborn baby?” To put it bluntly, an off-label use of a heart medication is used to cause cardiac arrest in the child. Southwestern Women’s Options states on its website, “Once the cervix is ready, medications will be administered which will start labor and result in the delivery of a stillborn. On the first day, an injection of Digoxin will also be administered to stop the fetal heart beat.”

Late Term abortion clinic uses Digoxin to stop heartbeat

Blogging abortionist Leah Torres, who claims that all abortions “save lives” (except the baby’s life, of course) also described the act of “euthanizing” a preborn child not as barbaric, but as a method of avoiding the dreaded complication of the infant being born alive. Torres writes:

During an abortion in the 2nd trimester, specifically after 22 weeks, it is general practice to perform feticide (injection of a lethal medicine into the amniotic cavity or into the fetal heart) to essentially euthanize the fetus prior to the dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure. It is therefore not alive once the abortion procedure is started.

Torres goes on to blame the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act for this requirement of an “intra-amniotic injection” which she’s says “put[s] the woman at risk of injury and infection… prior to the D&E.”

A report from the Society of Family Planning (SFP), whose mission is to support research on contraception and abortion, suggests that euthanizing the baby protects the abortionist from being charged with violating the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act:

The role of inducing demise before dilation and evacuation (D&E) remains unclear, except for legal considerations in the United States when an intact delivery is intended.

It is clear from the SFP report that the use of a feticide like Digoxin (which, while it is meant to stop the fetal heart, isn’t always successful) to “euthanize” a preborn baby before abortion isn’t altruistic. No, there is no concern that the infant will be in agony while it is aborted; there is simply an admission that the abortionist could face criminal charges if the child is accidentally aborted alive:

By electing to use an agent with established feticidal properties at a dose and by a route that have been established to ensure cardiac asystole in most cases, there is no intention of performing the banned abortion procedure… [it will] demonstrate the abortion provider’s intention to avoid the banned procedure and allows documentation of the absence of cardiac activity, thus protecting the provider.

The video below explains what happens in a late-term abortion using digoxin:

In the NM undercover video, the caller is given more details of what happens after the feticide is administered to “euthanize” her child.

“Labor is going to be induced here in the clinic, usually one to two days later,” the staffer advises. “The doctor will use a substance; it is called laminaria. She will place that in the cervix overnight… and it will very gradually begin to open up your cervix overnight.” Then the staffer tells the caller she would need to stay “close by” in a hotel near the abortion facility.

This little bit of instruction is important because the abortion staffer knows that once Digoxin is injected into the womb, the woman could go into what the industry calls “extramural delivery,” which means she could go into labor and delivery before her scheduled abortion. The chances of this occurring increase with each additional laminaria prior to the scheduled abortion, according to a study of late-term abortions at UCLA, published by the Journal Contraception.

“If the cervix dilates and your body may go into labor — then — you call us. That’s what you do,” the SWO abortion staffer tells the caller. The caller is then told that the abortionist will induce labor in the facility, where the delivery process will begin and “could take several hours.”

When a Live Action undercover investigator visited this same facility in 2013, she was advised that if she went into labor before her scheduled abortion, she would have to deliver the baby into the toilet of her hotel room — and, of course, there was the possibility of an accidental live birth. In the video below, Southwestern Women’s Options abortionists Shelly Sella and Carmen Landau tell the investigator that they cannot deliver a “live baby.” An unnamed counselor at the facility advises Live Action’s 27-weeks-pregnant investigator:

If we can’t catch it [delivery of the dead baby – the final stage of the abortion procedure] early enough, which has happened… then you’ll want to unlock the door to the hotel room, get your cell phone, and just sit on the toilet. You don’t have to look at anything … you can stay on the phone with us until the doctor and nurse get there[.]

Abortionist Carmen Landau echoes this advice, telling the Live Action investigator to “sit on the toilet” and “unlock the hotel room.” “Just sit there,” Landau says, “and you would not move until we come and get you.”

Southwestern Women’s Options was also a subject of another Live Action video, titled “What is Human?,” in which Landau likened the lethal injection that kills the preborn baby to “a flu shot, really.”

It is a sad reality that babies in all gestational stages are targeted for death in the womb. Human beings at all stages of life are sacred and should not have their lives extinguished at the whim of those who callously profit from their demise.

This article is reprinted with permission. The original appeared here at Live Action News.

Planned Parenthood has denied allegations from a pro-life group that a New Mexico Planned Parenthood nurse is performing abortions in violation on state law. As Saynsumthn has previously reported, ProtestABQ, a pro-life group in New Mexico, says they have uncovered documentation showing that registered nurse Vivianne Clark (license number RN-71112) – whom they claim is employed by Planned Parenthood of New Mexico – performed several abortions, some late-term, in violation of state law which requires that only licensed physicians perform abortions. The group has filed a formal complaint with the State’s Nursing Board.

Vivianne M. Clark medicaid abortions report provided by ProtestABQ

Protest ABQ received documentation on abortions paid by Medicaid Managed Care which showed that Clark, who is a nurse and not a licensed physician as required by state law, received payments for 81 abortions she performed totally $10,396.12 in 2013, a majority which were performed between 17 and 24 weeks prompting the complaint. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the New Mexico Board of Nursing confirmed receiving the complaint and say it has been referred it to the board’s investigators.

On Monday, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Whitney Phillips responded in a written statement to the Journal denying the charges against Clark, claiming that, “Nurse practitioners with prescriptive authority prescribe mifepristone as requested by a patient.” Adding, “No surgical abortions are being performed by any nurse practitioners.”

But there is a problem with that conclusion:

Documents provided by ProtestABQ appear to show that nurse Clark performed abortions from 17-24 weeks long past the new FDA standards of 70 days or 10 weeks. As the pro-life group Live Action News has previously reported, in March the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it is relaxing its protocols for the use of the abortion drug Mifeprex. Under the new regulations, it may be described in 200 milligram doses instead of 600, 70 days after the start of a woman’s last menstrual period instead of 49, and with one fewer trip to an abortionist’s office.

In their denial of the charges, Planned Parenthood officials point to a 2007 lawsuit where a judge ruled that nurse practitioners can, according to the Journal, “legally prescribe the drug mifepristone, an abortion drug, to patients without violating the state’s criminal abortion law.”

But, Attorney Angelo Artuso, who filed the complaint in conjunction with Protest ABQ said that is bogus telling the Journal, “A district court order is not precedent.”

Artuso said there should be an investigation noting that Planned Parenthood “believe[s] they have cover, but it doesn’t mean that the Board of Nursing isn’t going to investigate and find that it is contrary to the licensing regulations.”

Planned Parenthood has come under scrutiny in the past for not only pushing medication abortions but not adhering defying guidelines for women’s safety. Kristin Burton Brown explained this in a recent Live Action News article, writing:

At nearly all of its abortion clinics across the nation, Planned Parenthood performs medical abortions (also known as the abortion pill, RU486, and mifepristone) past the FDA recommended guideline of seven weeks. And, at 104 of its clinics across the nation, Planned Parenthood publicly advertises medical abortions past nine weeks, the medical standard set by NARAL and Planned Parenthood itself.

Carmen Feldman, general counsel for Planned Parenthood of New Mexico called the ProtestABQ complaint a “baseless attack” intended to “intimidate and harass providers.”

Artuso said the complaint was accurate because the New Mexico Legislature decided abortions should be performed by licensed physicians.

“We think it’s a good law. If that’s harassment and intimidation, then why not let anyone perform abortions?” he added.

A pro-life group in New Mexico has filed a formal complaint with the State’s Nursing Board accusing a nurse of performing abortions in violation of state law. Protest ABQ, say that they uncovered documentation showing that registered nurse Vivianne Clark (license number RN-71112) performed several abortions, some late term, in violation of state law which requires that only licensed physicians perform abortions. The pro-life group also claims that Clark is employed by Planned Parenthood of New Mexico.

Tara Shaver, spokesperson for ProtestABQ told Saynsumthn that New Mexico law states that only licensed physicians can perform abortions. Shaver said they discovered the alleged illegal abortions through an IPRA request for Medicaid data since New Mexico is one of 17 states that uses state money for abortions and report on the numbers annually. “You can see from the Medicaid data that she is doing 1st and 2nd trimester abortions up to 24 weeks,” Shaver said.

Shaver sent Saynsumthn a copy of the report. It was dated 2013 and entitled: New Mexico Pregnancy Terminations Paid in Calendar Year 2013, noting that some of the services were performed in 2012, but were paid through Medicaid Managed Care Organizations. An analysis of the report shows that Medicaid paid a total of $160,007.51 for 811 abortions. The report listed several abortion doctors including Curtis Boyd, a late term abortionist who operates in Albuquerque. In the report, Boyd was paid for several abortions he performed between 17 to 24 weeks.

Curtis Boyd Medicaid abortions, 2013 report provided by ProtestABQ

Vivianne M. Clark is also listed as receiving payments for abortions. In 2013, Clark received a total of $10,396.12 for 81 abortions, a majority which were performed between 17 and 24 weeks.

According to ProtestABQ, the Medicaid data they obtained through a public records request indicates that New Mexico taxpayers have footed the bill for over 200 illegal abortions performed by Vivianne Clark. And, reports provided to ProtestABQ show that Vivianne Clark was paid for abortions as far back as 2012.

Vivianne Clark 2012 paid medicaid abortions provided to ProtestABQ

Although the location where the abortions were performed is not noted on the reports, Shaver said that Clark is a nurse who works at Planned Parenthood of New Mexico ( Operated by: Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Inc.) pointing to this online business listing showing Clark as a Planned Parenthood nurse practitioner.

Listings at this website show 2 Planned Parenthood locations where Clark allegedly works. A search on the New Mexico Medical Board website which provides and maintains physician data as part of its official website, shows that there is no licensed physician by the name of Vivianne Clark:

“It just so happens that the only law in New Mexico apparently not being enforced says that only physicians can perform abortions. She is violating a criminal statute and the penalty is a 4th felony,” Shaver said.

The New Mexico Board of Nursing has confirmed receiving the complaint and say it has been referred it to the board’s investigators, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

A copy of the formal complaint filed with the New Mexico Board of Nursing reads in part:

I have attached proof that Ms. Clark has been reimbursed by New Mexico Medicaid from 2013 to 2013 for abortions she performed in the first and second trimesters, up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.Ms. Clark's actions are in violation of the New Mexico Criminal Abortion Statute (§ 30-5-1, et seq.)

I respectfully request that the Board of Nursing investigate this matter in the interest of public safety and that you take appropriate action against Ms. Clark, including revocation of her license if warranted, for her violation of New Mexico law.

Planned Parenthood has denied the charges.

“It is a disturbing fact that New Mexicans are funding an illegal abortionist through NM medicaid. The over 200 abortions that we have been able to document, based on the NM medicaid data, are only the tip of the iceberg as far as the total number of abortions Vivanne Clarke has performed over the years in clear violation of New Mexico law,” states Bud Shaver, executive director of Protest ABQ in a statement regarding their complaint.

“We are calling upon the New Mexico Nursing Board to do a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of this. Based on what we can already prove, Vivianne Clarke’s nursing license should be revoked immediately,” he added.

View the full report on New Mexico Medicaid paid abortions for 2013 here

The chair of a U.S. House investigative panel has announced that they have issued subpoenas to obtain documents regarding the possible sale of aborted baby body parts. The investigation follows a 2015 University of New Mexico (UNM) research study obtained by New Mexico Alliance for Life (NMAFL) which detailed “how aborted baby liver and kidney tissue [was] harvested from ‘six fetuses,’ only 15 minutes after the abortion procedure.”

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)who chairs the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, said the panel plans to subpoena the University New Mexico (UNM) and the late term abortion facility South Western Options (SWO). The Panel, which consists of both Republican as well as Democrat members, falls under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and has been tasked to gather information and get the facts about medical practices of abortion service providers and the business practices of the procurement organizations who sell baby body parts, according to their website.

Rep. Blackburn’s office told Live Action News that the Majority Staff of the Select Investigative Panel has sent more than 30 letters requesting documents. Those letters all asked for information to be provided voluntarily.

“By failing to fully cooperate with our investigation, these organizations have compelled our panel to subpoena these documents in order to acquire information that is vital to the completion of our work,” Chairman Blackburn stated.
“Without these subpoenas, the American people and the House itself would be left to speculate about what is going on in the fetal tissue industry. We cannot leave questions unanswered,” she added.

As Live Action News has previously reported, SWO is located in Albuquerque and operated by abortionist Curtis Boyd, who served as a UNM “assistant professor” and has been working with UMN for ten years. UNM’s health science center (UNMHSC) which reportedly used the fetal tissue for their research recently halted a training program using abortionists from SWO.

via prolifewitness.org

According to a consent form obtained by local pro-lifer Tara Shaver, the remains of babies aborted at Southwestern Women’s Options, are automatically used in research. “Since the “consent” for research is buried in the same consent form for the abortion, it is doubtful many women even realize their babies are being turned into fodder for laboratory experimentation,” reports Operation Rescue which investigates abortion clinic nationwide.

In January, the New Mexico Alliance for Life obtained a letter which they say confirmed that abortionist Boyd “facilitates” the, “collection of aborted baby body parts such as hearts, lungs, heads, livers, aortas, brain tissue, etc. from his late-term abortion clinic to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.”

The letter read in part:

“I have reviewed and been kept up to date on your research and feel that the use of fetal tissue continues to be appropriate for your studies. Therefore I will continue to facilitate your collection of samples from my clinic. following the usual inspection of the tissue…”

Boyd, who once admitted that he is “killing” states on his website, that he was involved in establishing the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and is a founding member of the Federation’s Board of Directors.

NAF is seeking a permanent gag order against the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) whose undercover investigation exposed how the abortion industry haggles over the prices of the babies they abort. The abortion provider organization is seeking to prevent the release of footage from their annual conferences in 2014 and 2015, claiming fraud. A recently released tape, by CMP appears to show an alliances between the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and abortion providers in regards to fetal tissue procurement.

Cassy Fiano, of Live Action News reviewed the tape and reported that in the video, NAF’s training and education coordinator, Sandy Fulkerson, floats the idea of a “group purchasing program” offered through NAF membership, where participating abortion facilities would supply aborted fetal tissue to buyers, and then split the profits. Fulkerson admits the abortion group “knows somewhere” where large quantities of fetal tissue are “available.” Another NAF supporter then chimes in that the financial rewards are a “win-win” for both parties, Fiano writes.

In addition to SWO and UNM, the panel has also issued a subpoena to obtain documents from StemExpress, (the infamous fetal parts procurement company exposed in CMP’s videos), for failing to dully cooperate with document requests. CMP videos show the biotech company’s CEO, Cate Dyer, boasting, “I have a picture from Hillary” Clinton on her desk. In another video, she jokes about shipping the fully intact bodies of aborted babies to unsuspecting lab technicians.

A New Mexico University has halted a training program using doctors from a late term abortion clinic which provides the University with fetal tissue for research. The Albuquerque Journal newspaper has reported that the University of New Mexico (UNM), which is a publicly-funded institution, has cut ties with Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO), a late-term abortion facility owned by Texas abortionist Curtis Boyd and has been the subject if a previous undercover sting conducted by Live Action. The abortionist is one of a handful of doctors in the country that performs abortions in the third trimester. He claims to be a former Baptist minister and admits that he knows he “is killing.” Southwestern Women’s has a location in Dallas and one in Albuquerque.

Pro-lifers Tara and Bud Shaver who founded the pro-life group, ProtestABQ, have diligently exposed the late term clinic for years. In July, Tara Shaver filed a formal criminal complaint with the Attorney General of New Mexico asking for a complete and thorough investigation of Boyd’s clinic following revelations that Planned Parenthood was taking part in a gruesome baby parts operation. Shaver indicated Boyd was also using the body parts of babies he aborted for research. She based her allegations on documents obtained by prolifewitness.org indicating SWO staff members are, “ in fact, harvesting baby body parts for use in medical research.”

The documents included copies Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) informed consent paperwork which every abortion patient must sign indicating that Boyd and (SWO) may be using aborted babies in medical research.

The 2015 consent form (image above) states:

“I understand that the pregnancy tissue will be removed from my body during this procedure. The pregnancy tissue may be examined here at the Clinic and the Clinic doctors may dispose of the tissue according to the law. The pregnancy tissue may be used for medical research.”

This consent form from 2012 (image below) says, “tissue and parts will be removed during the procedure.”

The form goes on to state, “and I consent to their examination and their use in medical research and their disposal by the clinic and/or physician in the manner they deem appropriate.”

Protest ABQ pointed out that New Mexico has a law prohibiting the selling of body parts. But despite the law, UNMH officials admitted to the Journal that they have been accepting fetal tissue from Boyd’s clinic for a decade claiming the abortionist is not paid for the baby body parts. In addition, Dr. Richard Larson, executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for research at the UNMHSC, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, told the Journal that Boyd’s clinic is the school’s only supplier of fetal tissue.

To justify the use of dead children in the late gestational age, Larson told the Journal that the “fetal tissue” they collect from Boyd will, “reduce the mortality of premature babies, especially these extremely premature babies.” Officials also claim that their grisly research will reduce the likelihood of blindness, cognitive defects and other anomalies found in newborns between 24 and 30 weeks, the same age as the babies Boyd kills. In a May 2015 letter to UNMH, the Journal reports that Boyd specified that in abortions of less than 20 weeks, his doctors use “aspiration, dilation and evacuation.” Abortions after 20 weeks involve “feticide” by injecting the fetus with the drug Digoxin, Boyd’s letter states.

Images: Albuquerque Journal

University officials still find the use of “fetal tissue” acceptable. What they are now publicly distancing themselves from is their training program with Boyd’s clinic and fellow abortionists staff who were described as “faculty” under the training agreements with UNM. The decision by UNMHSC officials to no longer send medical fellows or residents to Boyd’s clinic, follows a letter from New Mexico state Rep. Rod Montoya and other legislators who questioned top Health Sciences Center officials last July about the relationship with Boyd’s clinic and the use of “body parts” from women who have abortions there, the paper states. Montoya told the Journal that the argument could be made that the residents and fellows were helping the clinic augment its staffing for abortions.

“Initially, it had the appearance of being a transaction of sorts,” Montoya said, according to the Journal. “Of staffing in return for the body parts. That’s the appearance, and I informed them, ‘that’s how it appears to me,’ ” adding that he is concerned that there is no oversight of abortion clinics in the state.
“We know that the vast majority of New Mexicans believe we should not have a free-for-all when it comes to abortion,” the Representative said.

In addition to the using fetal tissue for research in New Mexico a former employee of Boyd’s testified that he also had an agreement with the Director of Fetal Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center to use “large babies” for fetal research there. The former staffer, Nita Whitten, made this statement at a “Meet the Abortion Providers” workshop sponsored by the Pro-life Action League of Chicago, directed by Joe Scheidler:

“One thing that happened at the clinic that I worked at that was incredibly devastating, right before I left. Dr. Boyd had made an agreement with a doctor, and I cannot name this doctor because I just don’t think it would be wise to name him today, but he was the Director of Fetal Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at that time. He had made an agreement with this doctor to give him our large babies for him to do fetal research on. They did this, and I believe at the time, it was against the law. I don’t know if it is now, and I’m not familiar with the legal terms because I’m not a lawyer, but I remember we were told not to tell anyone, and they only came in secret to get the babies…He had them come in and they dissected a baby for us in our lab room so we could see what they were doing with the body parts. They did that right there and everybody filed in and looked. I looked at it. I pretended like I was being brave and walked out. It made me sick.”

Bud Shaver described the University’s “fetal tissue research” program as unethical and immoral and said that he is now calling for them to cut all ties with the late term abortion doctor, “The University of New Mexico (UNM) has been caught red handed trafficking and using baby body parts for their medical research,” he told Saynsumthn.

“This is unethical and immoral which is why Protest ABQ is calling for UNM to cut all ties with Curtis Boyd at Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) which is their sole provider of baby remains. The fact that the residency training rotation has been stopped at SWO is merely a bandaid on the bigger problem which is UNM’s overall radical abortion agenda which is what Protest ABQ is demanding UNM to halt,” he added.

Today, due to Obama administration policies with Cuba, the US flag is being raised in the communist country. In addition, the Cuban embassy reopened in Washington last month for the first time since the 1960’s.

Having lived among large Cuban Americans for many years, I have a personal objection to this move much in line with Marco Rubio. The regime in Cuba has not been freedom loving but has restricted religion and free speech, even imprisoning many Cuban dissidents. But, politics aside, for now, there are abortion ties to this regime that the pro-life community may be unaware of.

Dr. Oscar Biscet is described as “Cuba’s forgotten hero.” Allott had never heard of Biscet until a Catholic priest friend had alerted the film producer to the Cuban dissident movement. He quickly realized that the Biscet story was powerful.

Biscet was a young doctor with a promising career takes on the Fidel Castro government. He protested the rampant abortions encouraged by the regime. He was vocal about civil rights, human rights, the ability to speak freely, and to assemble.

None of this went down well for the doctor, who was praised by fellow dissidents, admired by Cuban Exiles,and honored by with U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Biscet is now serving a 25-year sentence for disorderly conduct and counter-revolutionary activities.

Biscet spoke out against Cuba’s policies of allowing aborted children born alive to be killed. Any surprise that his story has not been told in America?

Dr. Biscet was sentenced to 25 years in prison and has been held in some of the harshest conditions experienced by any prisoners in Cuba, including in punishment cells and solitary confinement. This is Dr. Biscet’s second stint in prison. Biscet first ran afoul of the Castro regime in the 1990s, when he investigated Cuban abortion techniques – Cuba has by far the highest abortion rates in the Western Hemisphere – and revealed that numerous infants had been killed after being delivered alive. The report was sent to Fidel Castro with un-official statistics and testimonies from mothers who described the infanticide. Biscet was arrested and served three years in a prison camp after publishing this article condemning abortion. Officially, Biscet was imprisoned for the crime of “disrespect.” After he was released in 2002, Biscet was again arrested, after only a month of freedom, during Cuba’s Black Spring.

Dr. Biscet suffered immensely under the regime.

According to the documentary filmmaker, a letter smuggled from the doctor’s prison, entitled Civil Disobedience, Biscet wrote, “The people of Cuba have been suffering the scorn of a totalitarian tyranny, Communism, throughout four decades. Due to this inhumane treatment whereby the decorum of a people is violated, many Cubans are indignant and have risen up to pray and fast, beseeching the God of the Bible…we must expedite the achievement of these basic rights through civil disobedience and by putting into practice all methods to obtain our humanitarian aim.” Biscet pledged, “Here, in this dark jail where they force me to live, I will be resisting until the freedom of my people is obtained.”

The doctor was later honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush.

Abortion and contraception are very common in Cuba, since they are promoted by the State through the media, the school system and the health care system, all of which are controlled by the State. Pro-contraceptive sex education is taught in the schools to our children from an early age.

Certain statements by Dr. Sosa Marin, President of the Cuban Society for the Development of the Family (SOCUDEF – an International Planned Parenthood Federation [IPPF] Affiliate) and of the National Commission for Family Planning, clearly indicate this:

Cuba accepts and supports since 1959, the sovereign right of women and their partners to freely decide their reproduction issues. The State guarantees, through our health system, the necessary attention before and after birth, in cases of infertility or when birth is not desired. In such cases, the State guarantees the right to decide, allowing recourse to contraceptives. Similarly, the right to abort is the right of women and their partners, and that is why they are offered this institutional service with a high level of medical safety.

In addition, POP.org reports that Cubca openly participates in infanticide citing eye witness accounts from , Dr. Carlos Ciro Machado who related to TV Marti that when he saw a premature baby in a bucket he was told to let the baby die because it might die in spite of medical care and raise the infant mortality rate. Dr, Machado then called the head nurse and she said the same thing. Despite their opposition Dr. Machado gave the baby medical care, but the baby died anyway six hours later. Cuba is more interested in its international image than in caring for the health of its people, said Dr. Machado.

Castro government funded abortion doctor’s education in Cuba!

In has been my experience that many abortion doctors during the early days of legalized abortion were recruited from communist countries like Cuba. Although I have not fully researched this recently, I did make this observation many years ago after looking at the history of abortion doctors in Miami and the Florida area.

One current example is an abortionist who compared abortion injections to a “flu shot” and received her medical training in Cuba, and, according to the Daily Caller, was fully funded by the regime of Fidel Castro, returned to the U.S. planning to advocate for universal health care.

The information came to lights after the pro-life organization Live Action highlighted an exchange between Carmen Landau, of the Southwest Women’s Options abortion clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and one of their 24-week pregnant undercover “investigators.”

“And it is not like you and I, where when we get a flu shot, we’re kind of ‘Ugh!’ not — that — that experience of anxiety and suffering is not — it’s not capable of,” she explained, based on Live Action’s recording. “And so that, I think, helps us all to feel more comfortable with this.”

According to a 2007 report in Reuters, which features pictures of Landau, she was one of eight Americans who graduated from a Cuban medical school that year, after six years of fully funded education from the Castro government.

“Cuba offered us full scholarships to study medicine here. In exchange, we commit ourselves to go back to our communities to provide health care to underserved people,” Landau told Reuters at the time.

The Reuters report noted that the graduation ceremony took place at the Karl Marx theater in Havana (the ailing Fidel Castro was not in attendance). Thanks to aid from the Castro government, students graduated debt-free.

A pro-life group in New Mexico where the Southwestern Women’s Options abortion clinic performs late term abortions has accused the center of participating in the same gruesome baby parts harvesting operation as was recently exposed by the Center for Medical Progress about Planned Parenthood.

Tara Shaver of the Albuquerque pro-life group, Protest ABQ recently filed a formal criminal complaint with the Attorney General of New Mexico asking for a complete and thorough investigation of the facility in the state after revelations emerged that Planned Parenthood was taking part in a gruesome baby parts operation.

Tara Shaver said that the allegations are based on documents obtained by prolifewitness.org that indicate SWO staff members, “are, in fact, harvesting baby body parts for use in medical research.”

“This is in violation of the following New Mexico statutes,” she added.

Copies of the documents were sent to Saynsumthn and contained Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) informed consent paperwork that every abortion patient must sign indicating that Boyd and (SWO) may be using aborted babies in medical research.

The 2015 consent form (image above) states:

“I understand that the pregnancy tissue will be removed from my body during this procedure. The pregnancy tissue may be examined here at the Clinic and the Clinic doctors may dispose of the tissue according to the law. The pregnancy tissue may be used for medical research.”

This consent form from 2012 (image below) says, “tissue and parts will be removed during the procedure.”

The form goes on to state, “and I consent to their examination and their use in medical research and their disposal by the clinic and/or physician in the manner they deem appropriate.”

Protest ABQ pointed out that the abortion clinic’s agreement is mandatory for the patient, not optional.

“The fact that Southwestern Women’s Options has a stipulation on their consent form stating that aborted baby parts may be used in medical research proves that SWO is in violation of New Mexico law. This stipulation should not be on their consent form, but reiterates the fact that abortionists believe that they can operate above both local and federal law,” the pro-lifers said.

The pro-life group said they contacted the State’s Attorney General with their formal complaint because New Mexico has a law prohibiting the selling of body parts.